Water coolers can be found in many offices and workplaces. Typically water coolers are provided for the supply of a fresh cup of cold or ambient water to a consumer. These water coolers generally consist of a cooler housing upon which a water bottle is put upside down. Usually the cooler housing contains a cooling device, a reservoir for cold water, and two water taps, for cold water and ambient water respectively. Part of the water from the bottle is cooled by the cooling device and temporarily stored in the reservoir prior to serving.
In general, in addition to water, the consumer may like to have a larger choice of beverages in order to quench his or her thirst. This would generally require that an additional beverage dispenser or a set of bottles containing, for example, fruit juice concentrates or syrups will be placed into the office. However, floor space is usually limited in offices, and additional dispensers are expensive and cost, in addition to space, a lot of energy for cooling. Therefore there is a need for cheap beverage dispensers which can be fitted to existing conventional water coolers, and with which beverages, in addition to water, can be supplied. Nowadays one of the beverages that is becoming more and more popular is ice tea, as this is a refreshing drink, containing healthy antioxidants and may contain less sugar than regular soft drinks.
A conventional way of making beverages in a dispenser is dilution of a concentrate with water. The concentrate is contained in a separate container, and after mixing a fixed amount of concentrate with a fixed amount of water, a ready to drink beverage is obtained.
Numerous types of beverage dispensers and water coolers are available on the market.
GB 2,403,710 discloses a dispenser for fruit concentrate in conjunction with a known water cooler. The dispenser comprises means into which a conventional concentrate bottle can be screwed by its neck whilst upright, then rotated to a vertical dispense position. The dispenser is attached to the side of a water cooler.
US 2005/0121466 discloses a device for dispensing a beverage comprising a mixture of liquid, e.g. water, and at least one liquid concentrate, comprising at least two liquid nozzles connected respectively to at least one liquid source for producing a first jet of liquid in air along first path and a second jet of liquid in air along a second path, at least one concentrate nozzle connected to at least one liquid concentrate source for delivering a stream of liquid concentrate in air along a third path, wherein the liquid nozzles and the concentrate nozzle are oriented with respect to each other so that the first, second and third paths intersect above a container at a common intersection point, whereby the mixture is formed by collision of the respective jets and the stream(s).
Furthermore, beverage mixers and dispensers which may use a conventional bottled water cabinet supporting a conventional bottle have been described.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,723,851 discloses a beverage mixer and dispenser utilizing a bottled water holding cabinet which supports a water container and a plurality of flavor liquid containers; all of said containers being disposed for gravity-responsive delivery of liquids therefrom; and a dispensing and mixing valve below all of said containers; said valve having a rotatable and reciprocable valve member which may be rotated to any one of several selective positions communicating with any one of said flavor liquid containers; and said valve member may be reciprocably actuated against spring pressure to cause concurrent communication of said water container and one of said flavor liquid containers with a common outlet, of said valve, through which the water and a selected flavor liquid may be mixed and dispensed to a drinking receptacle.
Unfortunately the use of a common outlet to mix the flavour liquid and water as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,723,851 may result in contamination of the dispensing valve with the final beverage which, unless complex cleaning means are included in the dispenser, may result in hygiene problems and/or carry-over of flavour from one type of beverage to another.
We have recognised that there is a need for providing a beverage dispenser for use with a water cooler, which can allow for the serving of flavoured beverages in addition to unflavoured water and without the risk of carry-over of flavour from the flavoured beverages and the cleaning requirements that such carry-over necessitates.